European painting and sculpture..
Edition: 4th ed.
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1960
Place of publication: Harmondsworth
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 267
Subjects: painting; sculpture; art criticism; art history
Genres: Fine arts
First sentence: What ! Another history of art?
Yes. Why not? The facts at every art historian's disposal are the same, but his selection of them and his interpretation of them must always depend on himself. I am certain that many of the facts that seem to me important are not quite the same as those that have seemed important to previous writers. And if some of them are the same, I am certain that the conclusions I shall draw from them will be different. The historian-critic sees art very much as the artist sees nature. No two artists see nature and no two critics see art from the same angle.
Moreover, I have definite ideas as to the purpose to be served by a history of art. I suspect that out of a hundred people who know quite a lot about pictures and statues not half a dozen know what painting and sculpture really are. They think of the Mona Lisa and the Elgin Marbles as beautiful objects, things to be looked at and admired and perhaps (if art is their 'subject') studied. But they do not think of them as transmitters and of themselves as receivers.
My hope in writing this book is to turn a few admirers into receivers: not to describe pictures and statues or to relate facts about them so much as to induce my readers to tune in to painting and sculpture in whatever form they may manifest themselves, at whatever period or in whatever country. And I can do so only by giving an account of the working of my own receiving set. I do not pretend that it is an exceptional receiving set. On some wave-lengths, I am ashamed to say, it gives me rather poor results. When that happens the reader will at once be aware that something has gone wrong. He will notice patches in this book in which the reception is dull and blurred. They may perhaps stimulate him to a higher pitch of sensitiveness than I am capable of myself. In that case even the dull patches will not have been written in vain.
This is not a student's book. For persons with an appetite
Description: The object of this book, which has been completely revised, is to provide a short account of the development of the fine arts, and in particular of painting, in Europe from the earliest times to the present day. The author's aims have been three -brevity, continuity, and a sense of proportion. He has kept as close to the limits of justifiable compression as possible. Important secondary artists have been omitted: biographical details are absent. But only by ruthless compression can continuity be assured. Each artist or group of artists is treated not as an isolated phenomenon but as a link in the growing chain of tradition. The emphasis is rather on the strength, the shape, and the direction of the chain at each point in its evolution than on the individual link.
As tor a sense of proportion, that must ultimately depend on the author's personal sense of what is important, which, in its turn, is a reflexion of his likes and dislikes. These he has not seriously attempted to conceal, but the reader who does not share them will not find the book invalidated on that account.
In order to achieve brevity it is necessary to begin with a point of view, otherwise fundamental principles have to be stated and re-stated at every crucial point of the story. The opening chapters, therefore, contain a brief exposition of the author's attitude to works of art in general and an explanation of the characteristics of European art as a whole.
This edition contains an inset of 32 pages of plates.